Theme
Witnesses on grief
They lost someone. Their prayer does not cover the absence, it carries it.
A few words
But it is full of God, it is full of God, this universe.
There are things in life that can be seen only by eyes that have wept much.
More love to Thee, O Christ, more love to Thee.
If Jesus Christ, my Lord and my God, was crucified for me, why should I not be ready to die for him?
I have indeed found that the Christian life is a life of warfare; for the spirit wars against the flesh, and the flesh against the spirit.
What grateful thanks My dear Sister I owe you, for your kind letters, over which I have wept again, and again, and prayed for my beloved brother, whose grief I share, but cannot measure even by that which fills my heart. All human sympathy are but drops of comfort in his great sorrow, but God in his mercy will open a fountain of consolation to his mourning spirit.
All 41 witnesses on grief
- Angèle de Foligno Dispossession become encounter: as everything is taken away, discovering God present in all things.
- Anne Bradstreet The faith that passes through doubt and loss, and gives thanks from the ordinary of a woman's life.
- Anne Comnène Holding the memory of those we have loved, when time would carry everything away.
- Anthousa d'Antioche The voice of a mother who dares to say what she carries, without demanding anything.
- Beruriah To pray for the end of evil rather than for the end of the wicked.
- C. S. Lewis Faith regained through reason and friendship, and the prayer that dares raw truth before God.
- Christophe Munzihirwa Staying with those who stay, when leaving would be reasonable (peace paid for in person).
- Conchita Cabrera de Armida Ordinary life (weddings, griefs, household accounts) lived as a place of God.
- Dorothe Engelbretsdatter The evening prayer of someone who has counted what is left.
- Édith Stein The search for truth that leads to God, and solidarity held with one's people to the end.
- Élisabeth Feodorovna Prayer that forgives: to descend toward the poor and to bless even in the night.
- Elizabeth Ann Seton Lifting the heart to God in the midst of everything, without waiting for perfect silence.
- Elizabeth Prentiss The request to love more, repeated in the hollow of grief and of featureless days.
- Émilie Gamelin Letting grief open into charity, serving the poor with joy.
- Emma Rooke The prayer of someone writing to another who has lost the same thing.
- Glückel de Hameln Praying in the middle of the accounts, the childbeds and the debts, without separating the two lives.
- Harriet Beecher Stowe The early-morning prayer that asks for nothing but a presence.
- Henry Vaughan Light that gives itself at night, and grief that turns into watching.
- Ignace Maloyan The quiet refusal, said once and never taken back.
- Jean l'Aumônier Seeing in the one who lacks everything someone who has credit with God.
- Jean-Sébastien Bach Daily work offered as praise: turning one's craft, done well, into glory given to God.
- Jeanne de Chantal Grief transformed into founding purpose, a religious life made possible for women turned away elsewhere, steadiness through repeated loss.
- Macrine la Jeune Intelligence placed at the service of faith, and peace before death in one who has loved God since childhood.
- Marguerite d'Youville Unshakable trust in the Father's Providence, in the very heart of loss and destitution.
- Maria W. Stewart Taking the floor when no one has given it to you.
- Maximilien Kolbe A life offered in exchange for a stranger's, courage that turned a death camp into the site of the clearest possible love, a sacrifice witnessed and outlived by the very man it saved.
- Mélanie la Jeune Letting go of possessions in order to become free again; the marriage bond widened into brotherhood.
- Ngākuku Refusing revenge out loud, on the day itself, in front of everyone.
- Omelian Kovch Staying where you are of use, even when a door opens to leave.
- Paul Gerhardt The song that keeps standing when everything else falls.
- Rebecca Gratz Consoling without claiming to measure another's grief.
- Rita de Cascia Living through what one did not choose; refusing revenge even when it would be owed.
- Sarah Flower Adams The longing to draw near, using what hurts as a step.
- Son Yang-won Forgiveness carried as far as adoption, and thanksgiving wrested from the barest grief.
- Takashi Nagai Praying and hoping from a sickbed, when everything lies in ruins.
- Théodoret de Cyr Consolation written to someone one actually knows, and dispossession quietly kept up for twenty-five years.
- Tiyo Soga Standing straight between two worlds that each claim all of you.
- Toru Dutt To keep writing to the end of a short life, and to hold in silence the hand of those one loves.
- Vittoria Colonna Changing your subject once you discover what is worth singing.
- Xénia de Saint-Pétersbourg Carrying another's name before God; the freedom of those with nothing left to defend.
- Yohanan ben Zakkaï What remains when the holy place is destroyed: study, prayer, and kindness given back.